Unification of the a priori inconsistencies checking among assembly constraints in assembly sequence planning

Sequence planning generation is an important problem in assembly line design. A good assembly sequence can help to reduce the cost and time of the manufacturing process. This paper focuses on assembly sequence planning (ASP) known as a hard combinatorial optimization problem. Although the ASP problem has been tackled via even more sophisticated optimization techniques, these techniques are often inefficient for proposing feasible assembly sequences that satisfy the assembly planners’ preferences. This paper presents an approach that makes easier to check the validity of operations in assembly process. It is based on a model of the assembly planners’ preferences by means of strategic constraints. It helps to check a priori the consistency of the assembly constraints (strategic an operative constraints) given by the assembly system designers before and while running an assembly plan generation algorithm. This approach reduces the solution space significantly. A case study is presented to demonstrate the relevance of the proposed approach.